Bank charges also make businesses "headache"

	From 1 April 2019: Do not use cash to pay taxes and fees to Customs authorities
	Reference exchange rate down at week’s beginning
	Major banks go ahead with deposit rate cut plans

Banks often set many types of costs in transactions. Source: Internet.

The cost is small but can cost tens of millions of VND

Businesses are now subject to many operational costs, such as interest expenses, personnel costs, administrative procedure costs, transportation costs, bank costs... In particular, Bank-related fees are usually small in number, sometimes only a few thousand VND, but due to the large number and frequency, it can add up to tens of millions of VND - this is not a small expense for micro, small and medium enterprises.

Along with the banking service fee, enterprises must bear the costs of payment transactions, receipt / deposit / cash payment, voucher collection fees... at different costs. Typically, the fee for cash payment is transferred to other banks; the provincial residents have a fee of 0.08% of the total amount, maximum 2 million VND. Regarding fee for document collection, Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade (Vietcombank) stipulates the fee for registration/ opening of voucher transaction is 200,000 VND/ transaction; collection fee sent/ sent to domestic (charge right after sending the collection documents for collection) is 0.15% of the collection value, up to 4 million VND... Not to mention, in addition to the small revenue, banks also charge an annual fee (Internet Banking fee, query service fee, money transfer service fee...) up to hundreds of thousands each year.

Sharing the above problem, the chief accountant of an enterprise said that the company spent a lot in fees for banking transactions. Each time money is transferred, depending on the regulations of each bank, businesses can be charged from a few thousand to tens of thousands in service fees. In addition, each time a salary is transferred or any money is transferred to the employees, the cost is up to 3,300 VND per person, with 200 people an enterprise has lost more than half a million VND per month. This makes the fees for these enterprises every month can be up to 20 million VND.

Ms. Tran Hai Yen, Director of Benew Co., Ltd. said that the bank stipulates that if the account limit of an enterprise is over 20 million VND, the service fee will be free of charge, if under will be charged as usual. But because it is a small business, it is rare to keep the above limit so businesses still have to pay fees.

Need incentives

Ms. Tran Hai Yen said, in order to reduce the costs of such expenses, the enterprise has self-made many transactions. According to Ms. Yen, thanks to the support of the Internet, as well as many transactions made through electronic portals, businesses have reduced some of the fees such as collection fees, telephone charges... However, with these small but many kinds of expenses, many businesses expect banks to have more incentives, discount or free of service fees, as they have given many preferential interest rates and credit to businesses in the past, helping businesses reduce financial burdens.

Also to understand the difficulties of businesses and to increase the number of customers, banks "launch" preferential programs to reduce fees for businesses. Typically, Vietnam Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MSB) has launched a preferential service package, free of charge for banking transactions for corporate customers. According to Mr. Huynh Buu Quang, MSB General Director, MSB pursues a strategy to increase the customer experience, so the bank is always proactive in integrating more utilities for account packages. In addition, Saigon - Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB) also has a package of cash flow management products to fully serve the financial management needs of enterprises including: management of receivables, payables, and liquidity management with many outstanding incentives: exemption / reduction of money transfer fees, international payment fees. Especially when customers sign up for this package, they will be able to use flexible overdraft products (with / without) asset security.

Vietnam’s banking sector clean-up to weigh on credit growth The Vietnamese Government is ramping up efforts to clean up the banking sector, which will likely lead ...

To take advantage and seize opportunities, businesses must be really sensitive to business opportunities, but sometimes the problem comes from a shortage of resources, in which financial resources play a significant role. The number of newly established Vietnamese enterprises is increasing in order to meet the Government’s goal of having 1 million enterprises operating by 2020. Therefore, the economy must create the best conditions and incentives, most favorable for enterprises "living" healthy and effectively. Therefore, the support to help Vietnamese enterprises improve their financial resources will be necessary in the current context.